Christopher Rush

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Philippians 4:8, NASB

Admittedly, some passages of the Bible are rather abstruse and benefit from some commentary study (and a good Bible degree program from wise and learnèd expositors).  Philippians 4:8, however, as with most of Philippians, seems to be as overt and pellucid as the New Testament gets.  As Christians, on what should we set our hearts and minds, on what should our attitudes and dispositions of our souls dwell?  Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, of excellence, and/or worthy of praise.  Some might say “it sounds easier than it is,” as if because it is difficult it is not worth attempting, perhaps.  Our purpose here, though, is not to wrangle over the daily difficulties of living the Christian life in this dark world and wide, nor is it to minimize the deleterious effects of sin and the genuine, malicious diabolical forces of reality.  The point is to exhort you, as Christians, to stop willingly dwelling on the diabolical and demonic — namely, horror films.

Some might say, “couldn’t you say that about anything that isn’t the Bible?”  Of course one could, but we are talking now about something far more serious and sinister than reading ancient Greek poetry or indulging in re-runs of Barney Miller or playing Super Mario Bros. video games.  The key of Philippians 4:8 is “dwell.”  I do not disagree that indulging in anything too much (even what is good) beyond an active, lifelong pursuit of becoming Christ-like is inappropriate.  It’s not good to spend more time learning about God than spending time with God, abiding in Him and His word.  By dwelling on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and praiseworthy, not only are we thus dwelling on attributes of God and things that must point us to God, but also we are, clearly, doing what God has told us to do.  We have said again and again that goodness, beauty, and truth can be found and enjoyed in sources that might not always be “Christian” — and since we are all created imago dei, certainly we can (and should) appreciate what is true, beautiful, and good wherever it occurs.  But, honestly, what is in any way true, beautiful, or good (or honorable, or pure, or right, or lovely, or of good repute, or excellent, or worthy of praise) about horror movies?

When I was younger, I enjoyed renting movies from movie rental places, especially on weekends, but I began to be fearful of Movies America.  One time a fun place to visit, especially because it was the only rental place close to home that had a fresh movie theater popcorn machine, and we would often get popcorn with our weekend rentals, it also had fun drawings/raffles, which we would occasionally win, being fairly regular customers.  The trepidation came, though, because they were one of the few rental places also to have mounted televisions throughout the store — and it seemed most of the time they were running trailers for horror movies.  As a young boy, I really had no interest in hearing or seeing these intentionally frightening and disconcerting sounds and images.  Being a somewhat prolific reader (as well as most likely naturally endowed with the faculty), I developed a quite active and fecund imagination.  Even though I was only being exposed to snippets and clips of these diabolically-oriented experiences pretending to be “entertainment,” I was not so easily capable of leaving the brief sensory intrusions behind.  When, later in life, we had more ready access to cable television, unfortunately concomitant with that came the multifaceted sinister nature of the advertisement industry and the ubiquitous trailers not only for the theatrical release of so many reprehensible films but also, several months later, for when the film was then being released on the newly-invented device known as the video cassette recorder.  I was quite glad for the invention of the remote control, but that did not become a part of our viewing experience until much later.  I have no conception how anyone would willingly sit through such a film: what good does it bring our souls?  How does it help us, in any slight or remote way, understand reality better, even from a fallen perspective?

I am not denouncing suspenseful movies or action thrillers — that ilk can provide some interesting and possibly meaningful kinds of sensory-rational-emotional experiences.  Neither am I saying one should never ride roller coasters.  Nor am I saying never play RPGs (I have surely made my personal enjoyment of them clear in other articles), though I would certainly urge caution against the dangers of over-indulgence in role-playing with the underworld no matter how fantastical or unrealistic (never, though, would I or hopefully any Christian condone playing with Ouija boards — that should be clearly unacceptable).  Thus, I am clearly not saying “never be scared or thrilled in a potentially hazardous way.”  The kinds of experiences horror movies engender (and the same could be said of similar video games and even literature), though, especially the slasher-horror genre (if such a fine word can be used for such a thing), are nothing at all akin to the intelligent constructions of some dramatic thrillers.  Because of this distinction, without fear of contradiction or hypocrisy I can advocate watching Rear Window and not Psycho, though both are from Alfred Hitchcock.  In like fashion, though I am a tremendous fan of Gregory Peck and Richard Burton, I will never watch The Omen or Exorcist II.  I am a fan (of lesser intensity) of Jeff Goldblum, but I will never watch The Fly (Jurassic Park and Independence Day, yes, but Jurassic Park is close to the borderline).

The fundamental problem of slasher-horror movies is their appeal to the basest, most depraved aspect of the sin nature.  They are not an attempt to understand, calculate, quantify, and equip the audience with the dangers and natures of demons, serial killers, or the otherwise mentally unbalanced.  They are not documentaries on the occult (nor am I suggesting that you should even explore those — as much a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as I am, I will probably not ever get to  his Edge of the Unknown).  Neither, let us be clear, are they metaphors or allegories of “good vs. evil.”  The “good” characters in these sorts of movies are often overly-sexed, under-dressed teenagers who are only in the position they are in because they have willfully gone to some place they know they should not have gone or done something they know they should not have done.  Admittedly, that is a generalization, but I think all should agree it is an accurate précis of most of the tropes of the slasher-horror formula.  Most others deal with some sort of demonic incarnation in an unsuspecting suburban setting with, perhaps, more “innocent” people, but we should be far more chary of the demonic realm than those movies want us to be — did we learn nothing from Reverend Hale of Beverly in The Crucible? — such movies want us to think the right amount of ectoplasm, the right amount of sincerity, the right amount of rational cleverness in the face of such irrational folly, the right amount of good ol’ human ingenuity and know-how, or, perhaps, enough willingness to become just as monstrous as the monster to defeat it, and then all will be right in the end (until the sequel).  Most slasher-horror films are part excuse for pornography and part indulgence in other, base elements of the human psyche (why should any of these be indulged?), but it is possible the worst aspect of them is their intentional lie to the audience that the devil can be cozened, outmaneuvered, and defeated by we mighty mortals.  If Michael the Archangel is hesitant even to bring a verbal condemnation against Lucifer, surely we should not even consider being “entertained” by him!  This is what horror films want us to do: find Satan fun.

We don’t read Milton because he’s delightful (and hopefully we all reject the Postmodern misreading Satan is the hero or anti-hero of Paradise Lost).  Even C.S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters admits he grew weary of thinking and writing from the diabolical mindset — clearly we have enough resources out there to know what (little) we need to know about it.  Bono’s Mr. MacPhisto persona, patterned after what Lewis did in Screwtape as evidenced by the “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” music video, was, likewise, a tool for the purpose satirizing a point — that eventually ended when the time was right to move on to more directly uplifting thoughts.

If you want the thrill of “good vs. evil,” read The Faerie Queene or The Lord of the Rings or The Space Trilogy by Lewis or the countless other high-quality uplifting books, poems, plays, and essays readily available for centuries.  The summer reading lists are surfeited with such authors fit to provide you with a lifetime of quality emotional-rational experiences to supplement and support your life-long pursuit of Christ-likeness.  Admittedly, it also has a small number of suspense and horror writers such as Gaiman, Blackwood, and Le Fanu.  It is certainly possible that reading horror writers may be worse than watching horror movies — thus, without trying to sound hypocritical, I shall just urge extreme caution when setting out to read something like that.  Don’t feel bad, though, if your gothic horror taste (if you even must have one) never develops beyond Shelley, Poe, James, Hawthorne, and Irving.

If you want to watch a movie for some suspense and thrills, though, why not watch one of the classics that has nothing to do with the demonic?  It might be fair to say all of the best movies of all time have nothing to do with such slasher-horror ideas.  Check out the stars of yesterday: William Powell, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, David Niven, Humphrey Bogart, Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, the Marx Brothers, Myrna Loy, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, and the rest of the gang.  That should keep you visually entertained for the rest of your days in far most satisfying ways than what horror films offer.  And if you absolutely must watch a scary movie (not just a thrilling suspenseful movie), be sure it stars Abbott and Costello — that should suffice.

Jerusalem and Athens have more in common than Tertullian may have wanted, but Christianity/Christians and horror films should have nothing to do with each other.  Dwell on what Philippians 4:8 requires instead.  Not only will you sleep better at night, but your life as a whole will thrive more gloriously.